Mobile POS can support the future of retail

For brick and mortar stores to compete in today’s market, utilising technology is essential in order to operate as cost-effective and productive as possible with the goal of capturing every potential opportunity from in-store foot traffic to maximise profits and enhance customer service.

As e-commerce giants like Amazon continue to grow and compete with the retail industry, it’s more important now than ever before to understand the customer journey to their purchase decision. According to GFK’s 2016 FutureBuy data, customers will continue to go to a physical store to make purchases to:

See and touch the product

Wanting or needing the product immediately.

The customer journey

Purchase decisions are heavily influenced by online pricing and deals, product reviews from industry experts, customer reviews, user-generated content on social media or forums – access to these online platforms are instantaneous. As a result, the paths for consumers to make purchase decisions are highly diversified.

While a customer is in a store browsing at products and prices, they are also on their phones looking to see if a competitor has a better deal. Or they may be showrooming (in the store to see the product before making the purchase online or another retail store). It is more important now than ever before to empower floor staff with technology to be more productive, proactive and intentional in being a knowledgeable consultant in the customer’s journey.

Equipping staff with mobile devices like smart phones and mobile printers not only maximises in-store productivity, it frees up staff from behind the front register so more hours are spent on customer-facing tasks that drive sales and enhance customer service. They can be a part of the customer’s purchase journey and address competitor/online prices, product queries or stock information and guide the customer’s purchase decision without having to leave the customer’s side to find information.

When using a mobile point of sale system, a transaction can be completed on the spot, delivery information can be captured via the POS app and a receipt of the transaction can be printed with a mobile printer. For the customer, it is a quick and convenient shopping experience that is in-line with the pace of the world today, saving them time from having to wait in-line to check out items.

In addition to productivity gains, the benefits for business are quite straightforward. Mobile POS are a cost-effective solution and offer higher ROI than legacy systems for a few reasons:

It is typically part of a Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription model which incurs a monthly fee, with minimal or no up-front costs, as opposed to traditional/legacy POS systems which requires upfront capital investment on hardware and software licensing fees.

The software/apps are typically cloud based so new updates and maintenance can be done remotely and outside of business hours, reducing any downtime that can occur. This also means a reduction in the amount of hardware required for data migration, integration and storage.

The combination of the software and hardware components can perform multiple tasks, consisting of POS Apps run on smart phones and/or tablets connected WiFi or Bluetooth to a mobile printer. For example the smart phones/tablets are a handheld information hub to assist the customer plus with a POS App to complete transactions. In addition to the transactional receipt printing, the mobile printer can double as a label printer for coupons, labels reflecting price changes.

Where Brother can help achieve the outcomes you need

With a myriad of Mobile POS options in the market, it’s vital that you can find a Business partner who is knowledgeable and have delivered solutions to the industry of your business. At Brother we partner with POS solutions providers to provide a solution that is right for your business, with technology to improve your productivity by refining the way your business operates in order to compete in an extremely challenging market place.